Australia ADC Anti-Dumping Notice 2026/083: Provisional Countervailing Duty on Flat Rolled Steel from China

Mechanism

The Australian Anti-Dumping Commission (ADC) administers trade-remedy investigations under Part XVB of the Customs Act 1901 (Cth). Case 688 was initiated on 24 October 2025 on application by BlueScope Steel Limited, Australia's dominant flat-steel producer, covering the investigation period 1 July 2024 – 30 June 2025.

Product scope: Flat rolled products of non-alloy or other alloy steel (excluding stainless, silicon-electrical, tool and high-speed steel), not clad, plated or coated, not in coils, thickness ≥4.75mm, width ≥600mm — tariff lines 7208.40.00.39, 7208.51.00.40, 7208.52.00.41, 7208.90.00.30, 7225.40.00.22 and 7225.40.00.24. This is heavy structural plate used in construction, shipbuilding, mining equipment and general fabrication.

ADN 2026/083 (23 June 2026): The Commissioner made a dual Preliminary Affirmative Determination — sufficient grounds for both a dumping duty notice (China and Korea) and a countervailing duty notice (China only). Interim security rates:

• Anti-dumping: Baoshan 16.1%, Baosteel Zhanjiang 9.4%, Hunan Valin 26.4%, uncooperative/all

other Chinese exporters 51.2%; Korea (all exporters) 21.6%.

• Countervailing (anti-subsidy), China only: Baoshan 3.2%; uncooperative/all other

exporters 4.5%. No CVD applies to Korean exporters — Seoul's steel-support programmes were not found to meet the subsidisation threshold in this case.

Combined AD+CVD security exposure for uncooperative Chinese exporters reaches 55.7%. Interim duties apply to goods entered for home consumption on or after 24 June 2026, pending the Commissioner's final recommendation (due 7 August 2026) and the Minister's decision within 30 days of that recommendation.

Downstream implications

• CVD component is the smaller lever here: at 3.2–4.5%, the countervailing duty alone is

modest next to the 9.4–51.2% anti-dumping rates in the same notice — but it establishes a formal subsidisation finding against named state-linked Chinese steel groups (Baosteel, Hunan Valin) that strengthens the evidentiary base for the final determination and for future AU steel-sector CVD filings.

• Consistent with the ADC's 2026 enforcement wave: follows the March 2026 dual AD+CVD

extension in Case 659 (strata steel bolts, filed 2026-03-06) — a second 2026 case in which the Commissioner found Chinese government subsidisation alongside dumping, reinforcing a pattern of ADC CVD findings against Chinese steel exporters broadening beyond anti-dumping alone.

• Downstream cost pressure: BlueScope is the direct beneficiary; heavy-plate consumers

(construction, mining-equipment fabricators, shipbuilders) face a higher landed cost for Chinese plate, reinforcing domestic-sourcing incentives already building from the parallel antidumping-only case against Chinese and Korean HRC/flat products.

Open questions

• Final determination (due 7 August 2026): does the Commissioner confirm the CVD margins at

the provisional 3.2–4.5% level, or revise them based on SEF submissions?

• Which specific Chinese government subsidy programmes are identified as the CVD basis in the

final report?

• Will Korea's steel-support measures be revisited for a CVD finding at the final stage, or

does this notice confirm Korea faces AD exposure only?